100Jewellery housesHemmerle: Munich origins and unexpected material combinationsWorkshop practice, archived patterns and named projects in a bounded house portrait.
Selected maker accounts and bounded design interpretation; incomplete history, ownership, authenticity and performance remain unverified.
- House takeover
- 1893
- Harmony introduction
- 1991
- Mushrooms project
- 2004
- Delicious project
- 2011
A takeover and a changed design vocabulary
Hemmerle’s chronology begins its house story with Joseph and Anton Hemmerle’s takeover of a Munich medals and orders business in 1893. The earlier business and takeover are distinct events, without a verified modern incorporation date or legal continuity.
Its 1995 commission story connects iron with a client’s dislike of conspicuous glitter. A stated preference becomes part of the maker’s account of its design identity. This is a house narrative, without an independently inspected commission record or proof of invention priority.
Evidence: Heritage
Patina as part of the workshop account
Hemmerle’s craftsmanship introduction describes an atelier combining traditional skills with experimentation and research into patination. The account places the setting of stones alongside work on the colour and surface of metal. Those activities concern different parts of an object: one organises the gemstone within the jewel, while the other contributes to the character of the material around it.
In that description, a finished jewel is not explained solely by its list of precious components. The workshop’s account gives surface treatment an active design role, with the surrounding metal participating in the composition. This is a reading of the published practice, without a recipe for patination or an independent inspection of the atelier. An atelier description alone does not establish the roles of external manufacturers or suppliers in each individual project.
Evidence: Craftsmanship
Aluminium organised around colour
The [AL] Project describes anodised aluminium used with gemstones in a series of earrings and a brooch. Hemmerle associates the work with nature, spare geometry and metal colours chosen to complement the stones. The material’s role in the account is therefore compositional: the coloured surrounding structure and the gem are considered together, rather than the aluminium being treated as an invisible support.
The project captions identify several different combinations, including sapphires and diamonds, demantoid garnets, and beryl with zircon and tsavorite. Those named examples prevent the project from becoming a claim about one uniform recipe. A change of stone also changes the relationship with the surrounding colour. This interpretation follows the maker’s project description and captions; it does not infer the treatment or geographical origin of a particular gem, or guarantee the wear performance of an anodised surface.
Evidence: The [AL] Project
A personal visit and interpreted objects
Egyptian Story connects the project with a Cairo visit and with Yasmin Hemmerle’s family connections. The maker’s account describes museum objects and ancient Egyptian references as starting points for new jewellery. That origin story gives the project a personal context, but the resulting pieces belong to a contemporary design narrative rather than to an archaeological collection.
The project includes wood with green stones and turquoise, bird heads associated with tassels, and copper with carved references. These combinations bring a figurative vocabulary into contact with materials that carry their own colours and surfaces. The account’s cultural interpretations remain attributed to the project essay. They do not establish a universal meaning for every bird, stone or ancient Egyptian object, and the new jewels are not presented here as replicas with an independently documented historical prototype or verified excavation provenance.
Evidence: Egyptian Story
An embossing stamp becomes a new starting point
Hidden Treasures centres on an embossing stamp found in Hemmerle’s archive and ten new pieces developed for the anniversary project. The old tool supplies a pattern and a connection with the workshop’s earlier history. The distinction between stamp and new jewellery matters: an earlier design resource can participate in a contemporary object without making it an antique.
The project thus gives the archive a practical design role. A stored object is brought back into use through its pattern, while the later jewel receives a new combination and setting. This is a specific revival of an archival reference, rather than evidence of a business ownership change or a complete reconstruction of the old workshop. The maker’s account supports the stated project, but this profile does not authenticate the stamp, inspect its condition or extend its history to unrelated pieces.
Evidence: Hidden Treasures
A tea project and a porcelain collaboration
Infused Jewels is described as a project developed over four years, comprising ten pairs of earrings and three brooches. Hemmerle connects it with a tea blend and a handmade caddy. The jewellery narrative also names a collaboration with Nymphenburg for bisque porcelain, placing a material produced through another specialist practice within the project’s metal and gemstone combinations.
An orange blossom design combines that porcelain with bronze, pearls and demantoid garnets. Other examples use coloured anodised aluminium and diamonds, so the project does not rest on a single material palette. The tea association and floral forms give the collection a shared context while each object develops a particular combination. These are the maker’s descriptions of a project and its collaborators. They supply no evidence for health benefits from tea, gemstones or scent, and no therapeutic or universal sensory effect is asserted here.
Evidence: Infused Jewels
Seeds, leaves and the material caption
Nature’s Jewels describes brooches, earrings, a necklace and a ring developed from fruits, seeds and leaves. Its book collaboration includes poetry, but no poem is reproduced in this profile. The project account gives the forms a botanical reference while the captions identify the materials of selected objects. Those two descriptions address different kinds of identity: what a jewel refers to and what the maker says it contains.
A chestnut example is captioned with diamonds, obsidian, bronze, silver and white gold. The inclusion of obsidian places a named natural glass beside both gemstones and worked metals. In the project’s narrative, a familiar plant form can consequently receive an unfamiliar combination of materials. This reading stays with the maker’s stated example; it does not identify an unexamined specimen, determine the source of its obsidian or suggest that every jewel depicting a chestnut shares those components.
Evidence: Nature’s Jewels
Vegetables as subjects for jewellery
Delicious Jewels recounts a vegetable themed collection made by Christian and Yasmin Hemmerle as a surprise for Stefan Hemmerle in 2011. The associated book brought the jewels together with recipes by Tamasin Day Lewis. That account supplies a family occasion and a collaboration, while the jewellery makes everyday food forms into subjects for objects built from metal and stones.
The captions describe carrots with sapphires, copper and white gold; an aubergine with spinel, silver and white gold; and cabbage with sapphires, tsavorites and bronze. These combinations make the project a series of separate translations rather than a single repeated material formula. The named vegetable and the listed components occupy different registers of the same object. The maker’s narrative does not turn the jewels into edible objects, establish any nutritional claim or independently document the later custody of each piece.
Evidence: Delicious Jewels
An open bangle with a named closure
Hemmerle’s anniversary account dates the first Harmony bangle to 1991 and describes development beginning in the late 1980s. It associates the form with Stefan Hemmerle and presents a curved, open ended composition. The account also describes a twisting clasp intended to make the bangle close in one movement. These are specific statements about the named design, rather than a universal description of the house’s bracelets.
Examples place the form in several combinations, including iron with gold and a version with moonstone, iron and white gold. The recurring shape becomes a framework within which surface, colour and stone can vary. This reading follows the maker’s chronology and captions. It establishes no patent, invention priority, operating forces or fit of an individual bangle, and makes no claim of tested reliability.
Evidence: Harmony bangle 30th Anniversary
A woodland subject across different materials
The Mushrooms project dates its brooches to 2004 and describes several forms modelled after woodland mushrooms. The captions give different combinations, including pock wood with copper and white gold, sapphires with copper and red gold, and other examples with silver or diamonds. The account establishes a set of material descriptions, without supplying a botanical identification for every depicted form.
A shared subject can appear through several palettes rather than one fixed recipe. Wood, coloured metal and gemstones contribute to how the mushroom is represented in the project’s vocabulary. This design reading follows the maker’s account and captions; it does not claim that materials reproduce a biological texture under examination. The selection closes a portrait built from specific projects. Ownership percentages, legal continuity, authentication and individual jewel performance remain outside the evidence.
Evidence: Mushrooms
Hemmerle pectoral cross, 1900. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018.866; gift of Stefan and Sylveli Hemmerle, 2018.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Open Access / CC0. Museum object 2018.866. Photograph record · CC0 1.0 / Met Open Access
Responsive WebP copy · full frame retained
Full frame retained; proportionally resized and encoded as WebP. No crop, recolouring or enlargement. Original photograph and licence remain linked.
Sources & reading
- HeritageHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker chronology; precursor and takeover separated.
- CraftsmanshipHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Unique workshop introduction only; mirrored chronology unused.
- The [AL] ProjectHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker project account; no universal material performance claim.
- Egyptian StoryHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker inspiration account; archaeological meanings unverified.
- Infused JewelsHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Named collaboration; health efficacy claims omitted.
- Nature’s JewelsHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker project and material captions; no poems reproduced.
- Delicious JewelsHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker project account; culinary claims omitted.
- Harmony bangle 30th AnniversaryHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Named bangle mechanism; fit and invention priority unverified.
- MushroomsHemmerle · 2026-10-06
Maker project and material captions; species identification unverified.